Machines will do more tasks than humans by 2025: WEF

By

AFP

PublishedMonday, September 17, 2018

Robots will handle 52 percent of current work tasks by 2025, almost twice as many as now, a World Economic Forum (WEF) study said Monday.

The sharp increase could also see a net gain in "new roles" for humans, who will have to revamp skills to keep pace with the "seismic shift" in how we work with machines and computer programmes, the forum estimated.

"By 2025 more than half of all current workplace tasks will be performed by machines as opposed to 29 percent today," a statement by the Swiss non-profit organisation said.

Simultaneously, rapid changes in machines and algorithms, or computer processes that are designed to solve problems, "could create 133 million new roles in place of 75 million that will be displaced between now and 2022," the group forecast.

Based near Geneva, the WEF is known for the annual pow-wow of wealthy individuals, politicians and business leaders that it organises in Davos, Switzerland.